Auditing catalogue quality by random sampling

1. Introduction

The aim of this dissertation is the design and evaluation of a technique for auditing
the quality of records in a library catalogue. It is envisaged that the audit will be
applied to online catalogues, but it should be capable of adaptation for card
catalogues. The intention is to create a simple tool that libraries can use for
self-assessment of their cataloguing, either retrospectively or as part of ongoing quality
control, and not necessarily limited to technical services. It should ideally offer a
single quantitative measure which will allow comparisons over time or between
different institutions.

The technique is intended to fulfil the desire of UKOLN (the UK Office for Library
and Information Networking) to pilot a scheme for self-assessment of library catalogues
and was initially developed by Chapman (2000). A complementary tool is
being developed for higher-level description of cataloguing (Trickey 1999).
In many libraries, cataloguing is one of the most expensive processes, and money
spent on purchase and processing is wasted when an item cannot be found on the
shelves or in the catalogue. When browsing is impossible, because the collection is
stored in closed stacks or in the case of distance learning, the catalogue becomes the
only link between readers and books. An inaccurate or inconsistent catalogue compels readers to perform repeated searches either to find the item they seek or to find
everything of interest, violating Ranganathan's law, 'save the time of the reader'.
Even minor inaccuracies cast doubt on the quality of other records and give a bad
impression of the rest of the library's services.

The audit will use random sampling. It is entirely possible to gain an impression of
overall quality by browsing through records without a rigorous sampling technique;
since both methods fall short of examining every record in the catalogue, neither can
guarantee to represent the true situation. The advantages of sampling are that it
allows the inaccuracy of any statement about quality to be quantified and justified and
that it can be seen to be objective.

The following chapter reviews the literature on errors in databases, specifically in
library catalogues, and sampling methods in librarianship. Next, the technique to be
piloted is presented in brief, followed by an extensive discussion of its implementation. The results of a pilot in the University of Bath are reported and analysed for
their implications for the design of the technique and a revised version is presented.

1.1 Aims and objectives

To reiterate, the overall aim of this work is to formulate a technique for auditing the
quality of a catalogue, in terms of the accuracy of bibliographic records, rather than
the friendliness and speed of the user interface or the appropriateness of the classification. The specific objectives are:

to check the viability of the prototype method by piloting it in a real library;

to determine whether random sampling is adequate, appropriate and possible;

to verify projections of the types of errors to be encountered;

and to revise the tool and make recommendations about its implementation.